Greg Weatherall© Lat34
Bestwick Emerges From Friday the 13th
Jul 15 2006 / Orlando, FLIn a brutal contest that saw Tom Stober knocked unconscious and carried off on a stretcher – and horrific falls from nearly every other competitior – Jamie Bestwick claimed his fourth Dew Tour win in a row, sealing the deal for the overall Dew Cup points contest.
“Tonight was probably the toughest vert contest of the year,” said Bestwick, as he accepted his trophy.
He meant it literally: Stober went down the hardest, but he wasn’t alone. John Parker slammed hard on the first run of the night, Mike Mancuso went down on a no-handed flair, Francisco Zurita dropped in right after Stober got carried off and slammed in solidarity, and Simon Tabron wrecked on an alley-oop 900. And that what was just Round One.
There’s more: Koji Kraft went down at the start of Round 2, followed by Mancuso jumping out of a tailwhip flair, Jimmy Walker and Jay Eggleston sliding out, Kevin Robinson smashing his signature double flair into the coping, and Chad Kagy wrecking his signature double-whip flat spin. Even Bestwick – seemingly invincible on this tour – took a rough spill in Round 2, leaving his first round score of 95.75 to stand for the win.
Tonight’s competition was tough in other respects, too: Dennis McCoy and Simon Tabron each pulled 900s in their runs, which were only good enough for 4th and 5th place, respectively.
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Kevin Robinson was spinning all over the place in his third-place-finishing run, which included a no-hand flair, an alley-oop 540, a no-hand flair over the channel, and an opposite-side no-hand flair. Chad Kagy’s second-place run featured a tailwhip flatspin 540, and an insane barspin flair. He was working setup airs to throw the double-whip flatspin into the mix, but ran out of time (he landed one for the crowd after the contest).
And then there’s Bestwick. His winning run was a perfect cap to a nearly perfect Dew Tour season (he placed 2nd at the Panasonic Open, but otherwise went undefeated). He hit huge tricks on nearly every wall, sending the TD Waterhouse Centre into a tizzy: Downside tailwhip flair… No-hand flair… No-hand 540… Barspin to no-hand 540... Opposite 540 into an opposite fastplant flair.
With that, Bestwick not only won the PlayStation Pro and the Dew Cup for BMX Vert, but also – with the highest overall points in any discipline – established himself as the undisputed Dew Tour champion, making today a $115,000 payday.
He’ll be able to exchange that for British pounds, rest on his laurels and spend the winter watching horror movies back in England. Friday the 13th, perhaps?
-Win a Dew Tour Deck signed by Jamie Bestwick, Ryan Sheckler and more…
